Sir Henry II de Greene, 7th Lord of Boketon (1353 – 1399) Courtier and Councillor of Richard II, Member of Parliament

Henry and his wife Mathilda took up permanent residency at the fabulous Drayton House following their marriage. He inherited the stately manor and Greene’s Norton village from his father, Sir Henry Green, Lord of Boketon, KG. Henry the Elder bought Greene’s Norton (now called Greens Norton) for 20 shillings.

Originally built by the House of Vere, the vast estate surrounding the manor was granted to Alberic “The Monk” de Vere, father of Aubrey II de Vere, 1st Baron of Oxford (1062 – 1141), by William The Conqueror (1028 – 1087) after the Battle of Hastings. Drayton House was named after Sir Henry Drayton, who was born Henry de Vere around 1220. Simon de Drayton, his great-grandson, began building the core of the present-day structure of the manor in 1328. His only child, Katherine Drayton, married Sir Henry I de Greene (1310 – 1369). After his death, the estate was passed on to his son Sir Henry II de Greene.

Upon appointment by King Edward III, Henry the Elder served as Chief Justice of the King’s Bench from 24 May 1361 to 29 October 1365. He was stripped of office after becoming associated with a corruption scandal in 1365. Queen Catherine Parr, Henry VIII‘s last wife, was his 7th great-granddaughter.

Henry the Younger was a close confidante and counselor of King Richard II (1367 – 1400; agnatic descendant of Henry II Plantagenet (1133 – 1189) ) in matters of state. He was part of the triad, aptly named the three councilors, who were constantly at Richard’s side giving him advice. Tragically for them, they recommended that he confiscate the lands held by Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Hereford, while he was in exile. Upon his return to reclaim his inheritance and his right to sit on the throne, the Earl, who was soon to become King Henry IV Lancaster, had the trio rounded up and brought to him at Bristol Castle on 23 July 1399. He beheaded them all the following day. Richard II died of starvation as a prisoner in the Tower of London six months later.

The three councilors make brief appearances (Acts I and II) and say a few lines in William Shakespeare’s (or Earl Edward de Vere‘s) play Richard II.

Continental Army Major General Nathanael Greene (1742 – 1786) was Henry’s agnatic descendant. Originally a militia private at the start of the Revolutionary War, he rapidly rose through the ranks to become one of General George Washington’s (1732 – 1799) most successful and trusted battlefield commanders.

Elizabethan dramatist Robert Greene may one day prove to have been a figment of Earl Edward de Vere’s prodigious literary imagination. There is evidence to the effect that Robert Greene was Oxford’s nom de plume for his prodigious literary output from 1580 to 1592. After creating Robert’s demise through a satirical pamphlet, Greene’s Groats-Worth of Wit, he adopted William Shake-speare as his successor nom de plume. The following passage of said pamphlet makes this claim evident:

Yes, trust them not for there is an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his tiger’s heart wrapped in a player’s hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you, and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his conceit the only Shake-scene (later Shake-speare) a country.

“Johannes factotum” is Oxford’s coy way of telling posterity that William became his new literary servant after Robert’s death. He may well have been a flesh-and-blood servant of his much in the same way that William Shakespeare later served him. (One also suspects that the profile of the visage cloaked in a shroud as shown in the above woodcut is none other than Oxford’s.) Be that as it may, it’s interesting to observe that Oxford himself takes this occasion to sow the seeds of doubt concerning William Shakespeare’s authorship of the plays and sonnets he penned in his name to remain anonymous during his lifetime.

Robert’s rather plebeian family origins (both candidates as his father were tradesmen) cast grave doubt that he could have matriculated at Cambridge University (Oxford’s alma mater) in the first place, and later authored what at the time was exceptionally advanced literature, both stylistically and thematically.

Lord Boketon was an agnatic descendant of Conan Meriadoc ap Gereint (305 – 367) King of Dumnonia, 1st Duke of Brittany and Guéthénoc, 1st vicomte of Porhoët, Rohan and Guéméné (990 – 1040) .

By Steven Wood Collins

I spent most of my life unaware of my ancestral heritage. Sure, I knew of the personal history of my more immediate relatives; but beyond that, I never had any inkling as to my ancestral heritage. Then one day many years ago my sister said to me, “I sometimes wonder about our family background.” And so my quest to discover our genealogical roots commenced.

I started building my family tree with the very basic relationships, going back in time from my grandparents, one ancestor at a time. That initial effort proved to be the hardest part of the pursuit, mainly due to my lack of expertise as a novice genealogical researcher. As I gained familiarity with the databases and how to efficiently mine them, my progress gained ever-increasing momentum. Today, The Patricians! tree (Ancestry.com) contains nearly 120,000 individuals, stretching over 135 generations, 5,800 of which are my direct ancestors in a genealogical sense.

During this trek back in time, I encountered fascinating figures in both history and obscurity. This blog contains many stories about their genealogical relationship to me (and many of you). By far and away, as a student of history, the historically obscure individuals are of particular interest to me. I cite Baron “Blue Beard” Montmorency-Laval de Rais (1405 – 1440) as an example of a historically maligned personage whose real contribution to history, as both a playwright and hero of France, has yet to be properly recognized. Another example is Earl Edward de Vere (1550 – 1604), who’s yet to gain widespread recognition as the actual author of the body of literary work wrongly ascribed to William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616).

My life-long interest in international economics and finance continues unabated. I primarily demonstrate this professional involvement as a contributor to the Long Room, the members-only international finance professionals' forum hosted by the Financial Times of London.

I'm an avid recreational scuba diver who enjoys traveling to exotic dive sites. My love of the sea and marine life gives me an unbounded appreciation and support of “green” issues, especially those devoted to the conservation of endangered species and coral reefs.

He continually posts results of his personal genealogical research to his Goodreads Authors Blog. Entitled The Patricians - The Ancestral Heritage of Steven Wood Collins, the work represents thousand of hours of his research efforts and related commentary.

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